Lamezia Terme airport. How to get to Tropea?

How to get from Lamezia airport to Tropea

So as I mentioned above, the local atmosphere, well-known by Cecchi Gori comedies, met us immediately at the airport – police control with those adorable charismatic carabinieri (I couldn’t decide what was more caricature their film or real life versions : ), the info-point in the airport (which is btw the most important spot there – otherwise you’ll have no idea how to get out and where), the ticket office with no tickets and the bus driver with no tickets again! But let me tell you all this in order.

We were very kindly informed by the tourist helpdesk how to get to Tropea (just as to any other town along the coast-line), here is the secret itinerary:

take a bus (shuttle) from the airport to Lamezia Terme Centrale – price 1,5 EUR/person, it takes only 1 stop to the central railway station

you can buy the tickets next door to the info point

take the train with a direction to Rosarno – your stop might be Vibo Marina, Pizzo, Perghelia, Tropea or anything southern – our tickets to Tropea costed 4,2 EUR/person – it takes around 40 min to the destination. Keep in mind, the train goes every 2 hours approximately! A very good schedule can be found here

It sounded so good that I couldn’t believe I’m not dreaming. And the reality:

in the ticket office we were told they have no tickets left 🙂 , so please buy from the driver

the bus stays just right side when you exit the airport, no need to cross the road (those are intercity buses)

I asked for two tickets from the driver, and what do you think, he says he has no tickets left, buy from the ticket office. Non ho! No bighlietti! Finito! Being a very easily inflammable creature I start to shout using all the Italian lexicon I carry in my poor head, pointing out that the ticket office lady told she doesn’t have, but you do. He continues: ‘Anche io’. I continue yelling till the moment I understand that all he means is: I have no tickets, so just get inside and stop wasting my time. I swear he never told it this way, and probably you should be an Italian to take it easy and get the point without going into loud tones!

We arrived to the central station and bought tickets in the ticket machine (I had enough of human interaction for a while). In an hour we were at Tropea station, leading to the hotel using my best friend in trips – google.maps 🙂

NB: If you go for an Airbnb accommodation agree on a pickup with the owner – it won’t cost you more than 10 EUR, but it’s worth because the sidewalks are not the best fit for rolling suitcases.

Car rental tips

NB: if you are about to rent a car take full insurance package! Locals (for some weird reason) enjoy ripping radio antennas from rental cars. The antenna costs around 6 EUR, but the rental company will try to charge you as much as possible. So come to the airport drop off point well in advance to have time for some ‘scandale italiano’ 🙂

Car rental is a very good idea if you are about to stay outside the crowded touristic part – in a resort or country house – or going to explore the real Italian part of the province which starts just some 5 km up in the hills above Costa degli Dei, but is reachable only by car. Other than that, you can easily cover the coastal part using public transportation (train).